Week 7 readings and music

Gendering the waves stated a common fact straight away about the inherent patriarchal nature that seems to dominate most sports and institutions. In surfing the image of the sport is called out as one that has been promoted with a strong male focus, as if it were solely a masculine pastime. Hall makes note of and believes that it is important to acknowledge how many of these practices are historically produced and socially constructed. They use Pleck’s theory of patriarchy as one in which men oppress women and also oppress themselves; this honestly feels like bullshit, I can understand how a lesser man would feel shoehorned into believing he has to subscribe to a version of masculinity, but it does seem like a farfetched notion. I don’t think there are many surfers who moan for their whole life about how gender norms have forced them into chasing waves, there's plenty that just sit on the couch and watch T.V. all day. A hegemonic masculine approach sounds like an oxymoron, being so manly to prove your gender is the best makes everyone sound lame. The article notes a caveat stating that whilst it is important to note both men and women surfed, it is also important to note that they used different boards, which is one of the dullest things I’ve ever read, it seems to just try and reinforce a nature of opposition to an otherwise flimsy claim. With all articles of this ilk I kind of just have to take the philosophy that whilst the inequality and disparity between gender, race, or sexuality is shameful, it is also a product of a past which that is rapidly changing.

The bikini article was pretty fascinating and not very surprising in the least as most of the popularized Hawaiian culture seems to have been implanted or bastardized by foreign hands. It would seem that at this point there is no hope of radically changing the public consciousness and view of the word and the stories attached to it. The many theories as to the nature of the suits power seem a little farfetched, the idea of a bomb being a metaphor for female sacrifice sounded rather ridiculous, they’re bombing and contaminating the ocean, they don’t sound that smart.  

As for the music this week – I was already on a bit of a Pixies kick recently so that was all fun, never really considered them to be a heavily surf rock band, although there are definitely a bunch of their riffs that fit into that genre. Haven’t been able to stand Pearl Jam for along time, but I decided to try out their older stuff, which I enjoyed far more than I thought.

Gidget was an interesting watch after reading the excerpt from the story, the things that initially annoyed me about the actual story seemed to have been slightly fixed.